A French judge has ordered Sonia Mejri, a former wife of an emir of the Islamic State (IS) armed group, to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The 35-year-old, originally from southern France, is accused of enslaving a teenage Yazidi girl in Syria in 2015 while living with her ex-husband Abdelnasser Benyoucef, a key figure in IS’s external operations.
Benyoucef is believed to be dead, though an arrest warrant has been issued for him.
The investigating judge has ordered a trial for Benyoucef on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes, as well as directing a criminal terrorist association.
Sonia Mejri's lawyer, has reportedly disputed the charges throughout the pre-trial investigation.
'Inhuman acts'
According to the committal order, the judge has requested that the former couple be tried before a specially composed jury court for slavery, imprisonment, torture, rape or complicity in rape, persecution and inhuman acts committed against the Yazidi minority.
Among these inhuman acts, the order highlights "forced conversion or the couple's attempt to achieve it", such as "ablutions after rapes" attributed to Benyoucef on the teenager.
France charges IS official's ex-wife with crimes against humanity
Abdelnasser Benyoucef – alias Abou Mouthana – has already been convicted in-absentia in France for an aborted attack in the southern Paris suburb of Villejuif in 2015.
He is believed to have been in 2016 in the Syrian-Iraqi border region under IS control in coalition air strikes.
Testimony of Yazidi 'slave'
Sonia Mejri is also to appear in court on charges of membership of a criminal terrorist association.
Imprisoned upon her return to France from Syria, Mejri had given evidence in trials for defendents charged with terrorist crimes – evidence that her legal council, Nabil Boudi, maintains proves her to be a "convinced repentant".
The investigations against her are based in particular on the testimony of a Yazidi woman – now aged 25 – who was 16 when she was bought by Abdelnasser Benyoucef.
The lost childhood of traumatised Yazidi children abducted by IS
According to elements of the investigation, the Yazidi woman recounted a daily pattern of mistreatment.
She claimed that she had been held for more than a month in spring 2015 in Syria, and that she could not drink, eat or shower without Mejri's permission.
Mejri is accused of raping her twice and of knowing that her husband was raping her.
The prosecuting judge has ordered that Mejri also stand trial for aiding and abetting rape as a crime against humanity.
(with newswires)
